I may have mentioned this idea to people before but the other day I finally got around to creating it. This is the no pasta lasagne.

When eating, I often eat my least favourite bit of the meal first, to get it out of the way. For example, when eating a roast dinner, carrots or cabbage is usually the first to go. Who wants their last mouthful of a meal, of which the taste will linger on, to be cabbage? The reason I made this lasagne was although I like all the components of lasagne I find that when I eat it I tend to drag the pasta out first. This would indicate, to me, that this is my least favourite bit. So, how to rectify this and create a more evenly balanced meal, of which, all components would be equal it their order of consumption? The idea was to replace the pasta with something that was equally as tasty as mince, cheese and that white lasagne sauce. Only one thing came to mind, bacon. However, that thought later developed into gammon, as it was cheaper to buy and I thought it would hold its size and rigidity better. The following pics are the results of this creation. It was very, very tasty. However, the recipe needs work. The lasagne didn’t hold its shape very well. It seemed that the gammon did not have the same binding properties of pasta. I think the solution to this would be to go with the original idea of bacon and apply multiple layers. I should also consider how to overcome the excessive amount of fat run off that comes from the cheese on top. I refuse to use less cheese, there must be an alternative option. Anyway, that’s for another time. Here are the pics :

I can put it on the list of things to try. I have a feeling it may be a bit brittle. Once the juice gets into it I think it would break up. Worth a go though. Maybe if I mixed some egg with it it would hold it together better.

The no pasta lasagne, mark 2. This time I went for streaky bacon. Two layers. It worked splendidly. It held its shape a lot better than the gammon, tasted better, looked better and re-heats better. Here are the pics of its creation.

The bacon. I cooked it in the oven to get it mostly done. Not too soft and not too crispy. I was given a splendid tip from my boss. To stop the bacon from curling, cut into the rind a few times. It worked well, it all came out nice and flat, ready for layering. 3 packs of bacon were used.

The sauce and mince. I used 1kg of mince, 2 tins of chopped tomato, 2 onions, 1 tin of sliced muchrooms, some garlic, rosemarry, tyme and some "mixed italian herbs". No ide whats in that but it smells nice. One point to mention here, how pointless is a garlic press? I noticed we had one so I tried to use it. It was shit, all it did was mush up the garlic so I then had to pick it out of the holes it was stuck in and chop / crush it manually.